Instruction manual

2 /
©2001, by Paragon Industries, Inc. IM-213/7-02
Safety
The warranty on your Sentry controller
does not cover damage from overfiring,
regardless of the circumstances. It is the
operator’s responsibility to make sure
the kiln turns off at the proper time.
Follow these safety rules in addition to
the ones in your kiln or furnace manual.
G
When the kiln is not in use, disconnect the
power.
G
Do not leave the kiln unattended, especially
near the expected shut-off time.
G
Wear firing safety glasses when looking into
the firing chamber of a hot kiln.
G
Do not touch hot sides of kiln or furnace.
Keep unsupervised children away.
G
Install your kiln or furnace at least 12 inches
from any wall or combustible surface.
G
Do not open lid or door until kiln or furnace
has cooled and all switches are off.
G
Fire only in a well-ventilated, covered and pro-
tected area away from combustible materials.
G
Keep cordset away from hot sides of kiln or
furnace.
G
DANGEROUS VOLTAGE! Do not touch
heating elements with anything. Disconnect
kiln or furnace before servicing.
Contents
General Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Thermocouple Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
How to Display IdLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Which Instructions In This Manual
Apply To Your Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A Rapid Way to Scroll Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Program Review & Repeat Firing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Power Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Thunder Storms & Power Surges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Starting a Firing in a Hot Kiln. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Understanding Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Definition of a Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Temperature Over-Shoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Single Segment Firing Instructions. . . . . . . 5
Ramp-Hold Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Skipping a Segment in Ramp-Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Controlled Cooling in Ramp-Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Ramp-Hold Firing Instructions . . . . . . . . . . 6
Cone-Fire Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Pyrometric Witness Cones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
How to Interpret Cone Bending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
How to Correct for Under or Over-Fired Cones. . . . . 7
Cone-Fire Hold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
When the Kiln Shuts Off Too Soon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
How to Customize Cone-Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cone-Fire Firing Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
BadP / Bad Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
EtH / Electronics Too Hot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
FAIL / Thermocouple Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
TCR / Thermocouple Reversed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
FtL / Fired Too Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
PF 1 / Power Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
PF 2 / Power Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
TcO / Thermocouple Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Selecting °F or °C Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Display Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Trouble Shooter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Cone-Fire Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Orton Pyrometric Cone Chart . . . . . . . . . . 14
Shorthand Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
General Guidelines
Thermocouple Inspection
The small rod protruding into the firing chamber is the
temperature sensor, or thermocouple.
Caution: Bumping the thermocouple can push it
out of the firing chamber. This could cause an
overfire! The controller does not contain an alarm to
detect this type of failure.
I
A 1/8” diameter thermocouple should extend into the fir
-
ing chamber ½” - 5/8”.
I
A ¼” diameter thermocouple should extend into the fir
-
ing chamber 1” or more.
I
Keep shelves, posts and ware 1”-1½”away from the
thermocouple.